


magic eight

by commandercosmo



Category: IT (1990 MiniSeries), IT - Stephen King
Genre: IT 1990 Reader-Insert, Trans Male Reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 00:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12243786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commandercosmo/pseuds/commandercosmo
Summary: It's a fairly ordinary night for you, until a childhood friend calls you unexpectedly.





	magic eight

You nearly drop the phone. You can hear your name being called on the receiver, but it sounds far away, as though it's being shouted through a tunnel. It's been so long since you've heard Mike's voice, and so long since you... since you all…

 

You choke back tears as your head pounds, feeling as though something was pushing and  _ pushing _ against your skull. Your hands are shaking and your knees are week, and you're sure that if you stay standing, you'll collapse. 

 

You try to make yourself move to the chair that's next to you, but you can't. You're frozen in fear at the words you'd heard. They were words you were certain you'd never hear, but here you were, unable to process what your childhood friend had just told you.

 

**_It_ ** _ 's come back.  _

 

Your breath catches, coming in more shallowly. Your hands tremble, and you have to use both of them to support the phone next to your ear. You remembered, now -- not everything, but you  _ remembered.  _

 

“Are…” Your voice comes out weak, and you have to clear your throat to stop it from wavering. “Are you sure?”

 

“I’m sure,” Mike says solemnly, evidently as unhappy as you are about this development. He remains silent after this affirmation, waiting for you to come to terms with what he’s told you.

 

You take a deep breath. You close your eyes. You try (in vain) to calm your heart rate so that you can answer your childhood friend. 

 

“How soon?” You ask him. You remembered your promise, the promise that all eight of you had made that day. You didn’t know how you would do it, but you knew that you had to be there when the time came.

 

“That depends,” Mike says, anxious. “How soon can you get here?” You want to laugh, because he’s obviously trying to lighten the mood, but you’re stricken again with exactly how real and immediate the situation is.

 

“...I’ll see you soon, Mike,” you tell him, and he bids you goodbye before hanging up. Without a moment’s hesitation, you begin to compile a suitcase of your things, throwing whatever your hands touch first into it.

 

You realize distantly that you can’t just leave without telling anybody. You have obligations, you have a home, you have a dog. You grab your phone again, and dial your closest friend.

 

“Can you house sit for a few days?” You ask without a greeting, holding the phone with your shoulder as you continue to fill your suitcase, trying to fold things at least half-decently. 

 

“What?” Your friend asks you. You can hear the concern in their voice, because you’re usually not one for asking such things out of the blue.

 

“Can you?” you ask, your head beginning to throb. You know you’re being rude, but you have to call a taxi before you can leave, and you’re beginning to get dangerously close to an anxiety attack.

 

“I-- I can, yeah,” your friend says, and you breathe a sigh of relief. You can tell that they want to ask more questions, but you cut them off before they can.

 

“Great, thank you so much,” you say, zipping up your suitcase. “The dog food is in the cupboard next to the fridge, and he needs to be walked once a day, if you can. My plants only need to be watered once a week. I’ll leave you a key under the mat--” Your words are coming more quickly now, and you’re sure you sound insane, but you have to be as efficient as you can. Your friends need you.

 

“Hey, hey, slow down!” Your friend says, and you can hear them rustling around, probably for some paper and a pen. “I know all of this stuff, buddy. What’s wrong? Are you running from someone?”

 

You sigh and stop for a moment. This is your closest friend you’re talking to; you don’t need to be this rude to them, even if you can’t explain everything. “No, it’s -- it’s more like I’m running towards something.” You wince, because this definitely does not explain matters. 

 

“What? You’re not making any sense, and you’re scaring me -- look, I’ll come over right now and we can talk--”

 

“No!” You cut them off with a shout. “Sorry. No. No, you don’t have to do that. I’m actually leaving right now,” you say, giving your dog a loving scratch behind the ears before you zip up your large suitcase, which is now full of probably a week’s worth of clothing. Just in case.

 

“Leaving?” The voice on the other end of the phone is beginning to get frantic now, which is the opposite of what you wanted. “What are you -- leaving to go where?”

 

You take a deep breath, because you  _ really  _ need to leave at this point. You look at the clock. It’s been almost an hour since Mike called you. 

 

“I’ve gotta go back to Maine,” you say before hanging up the phone. You sigh and take one last look at your apartment -- your paintings, your workstation, your messy kitchen. Your dog is more than a little confused, his head tilting to one side while he wags his tail. You smile tearfully, your eyes watery. This could very well be the last time you ever see him, or your apartment, ever again. 

 

You pick the phone back up with shaking hands. You wipe the tears out of your eyes so that you can see the keypad before punching in the number for taxi service.

 

“I’ve gotta get the next flight to Maine,” you say once someone answers on the other line.

**Author's Note:**

> WOW OK!!! So this is the prologue to a reader-insert fanfic that I'm considering writing about the 1990s IT miniseries
> 
> As of now (Oct 1st) I haven't actually seen the 2017 film, but I love the miniseries so much, and I really felt like writing at least a small piece for it! I'm posting this lil piece to see if there's any actual interest for this, because I don't know that I'd be able to write more if it's just for me!
> 
> Reader will be a trans guy, because I'm a trans guy, and I find it... quite a bit easier to write for trans guys than anything else. 
> 
> Please let me know if you liked this, and if you'd like me to write more!!


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